Understanding the brain, one dimension at a time.

Eliezyer

de Oliveira

Understanding the brain, one dimension at a time.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience with a background in Biomedical Engineering, dedicated to uncovering how the brain’s intrinsic organization shape our perception and learning. By using a multidisciplinary approach – including behavior, systems neuroscience, and molecular techniques – I investigate the fundamental principles of brain function.

The key to brain function is within its intrinsic organization

Behavior

Behavioral experiments reveal how we adapt and learn to changes in our world, providing the opportunity to study the mechanism behind these processes.

Circuits and manifold

At the neural circuits level, we uncover how the brain self-organizes into manifolds to process and encode new information.

Molecular

Molecular states shape the neurons recruitment to computational processes, revealing how cellular mechanisms drive brain function.

About me


I am a Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience with a background in Biomedical Engineering, dedicated to uncovering the mechanisms that drive brain function. My research investigates how neural circuits process information and adapt during learning, focusing on behavior, circuit-level computations, and molecular states of neurons.

I am fascinated by the brain’s intrinsic organization and use sleep as a model to explore it. Sleep offers a unique window into brain activity, when it is free from sensory inputs and movement. Key questions in my research include: How does the brain construct neural codes from intrinsic activity? Are new activity patterns integrated into or distinguished from existing intrinsic activity during learning?

Project Highlight

Off-manifold coding in visual cortex revealed by sleep

Using sleep as a model, I explored intrinsic correlations (the manifold) in the primary visual cortex (V1) and uncovered how the brain optimizes its neural activity space. Synaptic connections create correlations that constrain activity to a reduced neural space, the intrinsic manifold. This leaves an ‘activity-free’ space accessed only through sparse activity. My findings reveal that brain-wide signals (e.g., body movements) are encoded within the intrinsic manifold, while natural scenes activate the activity-free space. This separation ensures distinct neural subspaces encode different types of information, maintaining independent processing.

Explore my research, tools, and connect with me on social medias to learn more about how the brain’s intrinsic activity shapes behavior and learning.